To help increase productivity in Singapore, the Process Construction & Maintenance Productivity Council (PC) was formed in February 2015. The PC has 17 members, including plant owners, ASPRI members and a representative from the Singapore Chemical Industry Council (SCIC).

One of the reason why the PC was formed is to oversee the implementation of the three-year partnership with the Construction Industry Institute (CII) in Texas that will carry out a study and implement best practices, metrics and benchmarking for project management, as well as implement a certification system on productivity.

3 Work Groups were formed to drive the effort:

Pilot Project Workgroup

Certification Workgroup

Mechanisation Workgroup

Productivity Practices Workgroup

Pilot Project Workgroup

The Pilot Project Work Group will oversee the three-year programme by arranging for five projects each year (total of 15) for CII to carry out research and analysis on management practices and productivity in Singapore.

Plant owners and contractors will, for the first time, work together on a co-ordinated basis to measure project-level productivity, to allow CII to benchmark the productivity measurements for the development of a common understanding amongst all players to improve productivity. Existing productivity best practices in Singapore will be identified and improved upon.

This work group will also be responsible for the establishment of a Centre of Excellence (COE) to sustain productivity improvement over the long term.

Certification Workgroup

Currently, measures in place to ensure project planning and control in the PCM industry are largely left to the management of individual contractors. The Certification Work Group, supported by counsel from CII, will develop a tiered productivity certification system for contractors in the PCM sector. The initiative will allow the industry the industry to certify best practices, industry-wide, for the first time.

Mechanisation Workgroup

The Mechanisation Work Group will define the concept of mechanisation, develop simple and effective mechanisation measures that can be universally implemented, and promote the sharing of best mechanisation practices within the industry. As the key stakeholders, both plant owners and contractors will be involved in identifying mechanisation solutions and developing frameworks that can increase the adoption of mechanical tools at various levels within the industry.

CII will at the same time provide a global study on mechanisation and develop global benchmarks and minimum standards for the ratio of craft labour to machinery. This will allow the group to work with industry stakeholders to create a data repository of tools, both existing and new, to help drive the adoption of new tools to as to mechanise as many labour-intensive work processes as possible.

Productivity Practices Workgroup

The Productivity Practices Workgroup focused on developing a list of productivity good practices in identified areas which requires minimum resource investment to implement. The Workgroup shared current practices and understood both owner’s and contractor’s challenges and constraints of implementation.